Fragrance: Scent on a budget – Body Shop

The glass of fresh water is essential when testing perfume,  to cleanse the nose!

I’m conscious of the fact that a lot of the products reviewed here are pricey – not every man can afford to (or want to) spend a lot of money on their perfume. In that vein, I’ve selected a couple of affordable yet sophisticated scents, that have an air of quality about them.

Body Shop White Musk for Men is a lovely, light scent that interestingly moves straight to the dry-down phase. But that’s not a bad thing – the base notes are a blend of musk, sandalwood and tonka bean and all are recognisable. I’ve noticed that many men like musk based fragrances to begin with, but after a few minutes find them too heavy and too cloying - White Musk is the antidote to this problem, giving you a musky aura but without turning sickly. Adjectively speaking (if such a phrase is permissible), it’s quite a sexy scent – seductive and attractive but not bullish or brash. In the same way that white gold is the often classier alternative to pure gold, White Musk is the perfect summer scent if you want radiate understated sophistication.

Body Shop Arber on the other hand, is certainly not musky but is a slightly spicy and woody EDT, with prominent top notes of mint and coriander. Interesting that the bottle is brown, as it reminds me very much of the earth (in an excellent way, I should add). Nice as the top notes are, they don’t linger but they do leave behind a very beautiful sandalwood base note that hangs around longer than I expected it to. It doesn’t fill the room behind you (and that’s no drawback) but it will certainly be noticeable in an embrace or when you’re sat next to someone, which is what counts.  It is great for a date or romantic encounter when you don’t want to wear a generic fragrance or smell like every other guy.

To conclude, it is possible to get a good scent without spending the earth – White Musk EDT is £16 and Arber is £15.